Michigan University Removes Sculpture After Naked Students Imitate Miley Cyrus

ABC News

Sep 18, 2013, 12:51 PM

Miley Cyrus's risqué twerking, tongue flashing and foam finger dancing called into question what kind of role model she is for the tweens who loved her as "Hannah Montana," but now it appears the concern should have been for college students.

Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., announced Tuesday it was removing a pendulum art piece from its campus after students imitating Cyrus posted videos online of themselves naked on the sculpture.

"The examination of the structural integrity of the installation showed cable decay," associate vice president for facilities services Tim Thimmesch said in a statement. "We'll have a structural engineer review the installation and provide an assessment of the load on the beam - particularly when there is added weight. Safety is our main concern."

Grand Valley students have reacted to the sculpture's removal by creating a Twitter account for the sculpture, a bifilar pendulum created by artist Dale Eldred in the 1970s, and holding a protest in its honor.

The students' protest Tuesday night, outside the Padnos Hall of Science, where the sculpture has hung since 1995, included a live rendition of "Wrecking Ball," according to the Detroit Free Press.

The university said it does not know where, or if, the sculpture will be reinstated and that it will remain in storage for the time being.

"If people can take their minds off the obvious and go into their imagination a little bit and see kind of what the video really means," she said. "If you look in my eyes, I look more sad than my voice sounds on the record," she said. "It was a lot harder to do the video than it even was to record the song."